A shell account is a personal account that gives you access to a Unix shell on another machine. With a shell account you can log into a remote server and run commands on it. It s very useful when you want to try out another operating system, to get more out of IRC for example by running a bot such as Eggdrop, to host an advanced website, or to use some advanced email services.
It is worth noting that most free shell providers do not allow IRC bots or Bounce (network)s, for this functionality you might have to buy a shell from a commercial provider. These accounts usually cost from US$3/month and up.
Often there are policies for shell account that dont allow you to run any background processes or only a limited amount such as 3. If you dont behave, the admin/sysop might remove your account.
=External Links:=
[http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Chat/IRC/Shell_Providers/ Shell Account Providers] Directory on DMOZ
[http://www.shellsnet.org shellsnet.org - home of various free shell providers and resources]
[http://shells.bezeu.com bezeu.com! - Biggest free shell list on the internet]
[http://www.phoenix-network.org Phoenix Network - Free shells, eggdrops allowed]
[http://xhz.freeshell.org/texts/shell.html X-Net - Shell Account Tutorial]
[http://www.bylur.net/free/ bylur.net - List of free shell account providers]
Grex - [http://grex.cyberspace.org/ Free shell accounts provider]
Super Dimension Fortress (SDF) - [http://www.freeshell.org/ Free shell accounts provider under NetBSD]
Polarhome - Various Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenVMS, IRIX, AIX, QNX, Solaris and HP-UX [http://www.polarhome.com/]
Metawire - OpenBSD shell, email and webhosting [http://metawire.org/]
[http://www.phurix-shells.co.uk/ Phurix Shells - Quality UK freebsd shell hosting, supports IRC]
[http://www.reverse.net Reverse.Net] A Chicago FreeBSD based, Internet Relay Chat Unix shell accounts.